Page 23 of Still A Cowboy
Fia tapped the screen. “How do you protect your junk in moments like this? I mean seriously. Does it just… get flattened?”
Cal chuckled, low and easy. “You wear tight-fitting underwear so everything gets held in place. And you learn how to shift your weight, brace right. Most of the time, that works but not always.”
Fia’s grin stretched wider. “So… is your junk busted?”
Cal’s eyes flicked to Willa’s, and his mouth curved into that slow grin that drove her crazy. “No,” he said, his voice dropping just a notch. “My junk works just fine.”
Willa’s stomach twisted, heat sliding through her like she had no defense against it.
“Good to know,” Fia said with a laugh, oblivious, or rather pretending to be, to the tension building between them.
Cal’s gaze lingered on Willa for a heartbeat longer before he turned back to Fia’s phone. Willa tried to focus on the conversation, but all she could think about was the weight of his arm brushing hers and the way his words kept looping in her head.
His junk works just fine.
Yeah. That officially stuck.
Fia kept swiping through the pictures, narrating like she was giving a guided tour of Cal’s greatest hits. She showed one where he was tipping his hat to a roaring crowd, another where he was half airborne as the bull kicked beneath him, and one where he looked straight at the camera, dirt streaked across his jaw, the kind of picture that could stop a woman in her tracks.
She barely heard Fia’s commentary. Cal’s arm brushed against hers again, a small thing, but it lit up every inch of her skin like he had dragged fire across it.
“Oh my God, I think that’s them,” Fia blurted,and Willa clearly heard that.
Willa looked up to see what had caught her sister’s attention, and it was the masked couple who’d come in earlier. But they were no longer masked. They were sipping the cocktails they’d been served, their faces now fully visible.
“That’s them,” Fia whispered, eyes wide. “That’s Sawyer and Lark.”
Willa blinked. “Who?”
Fia pulled out her phone, flipping it around to show Willa the screen. “They’re famous vloggers.Chasing Fire.They travel the world teaching couples how to keep the romance alive. Role-playing, adventure dates, mystery weekends… they’ve got millions of followers. They’re huge.”
Willa’s gaze drifted back to the couple, watching them laugh and clink their glasses like they didn’t have a care in the world. Her stomach twisted, a little unsettled now.
Was it them?
Was this the couple Cal and she had seen in the window?
She couldn’t be sure. The masks, the distance, the storm that night—it would have been easy to misread what she saw.
But still.
Willa couldn’t shake the thought. Couldn’t help but wonder if she and Cal had been watchingChasing Firein action. And more than that, she wondered why the idea of Cal seeing anyone elselike that suddenly made her skin burn a little hotter than it should.
Before Willa could keep the sensations at bay, flashes of their kiss slammed into her. The heat, the weight of his hands, the feel of his mouth on hers. She could still taste it. She could still feel the rush of wanting more.
His gaze dropped to her mouth, slow and deliberate, like he was remembering it too.
He leaned in a little. “Can I have a word with you?”
Her pulse skipped. She knew what the smart answer was. She should tell him no, stay right where she was, right in the middle of all these people.
But her body was already moving, her heart already leaning toward him.
She nodded.
Cal stood and Willa followed, weaving through the crowd until they slipped into the snug, a small side room just off the bar that gave people a little privacy when they wanted it. The door clicked shut behind them, but the hum of the bar still carried through. Laughter, the clink of glasses, the jukebox spinning some old country song that wrapped around the edges of the moment.
Cal didn’t waste any time.
